Your Darkest Dreams
by neveragainsetup
Summary: Beckett and Castle and the gang are investigating a string of disappearances of college students, who inevitably end up dead. But when Alexis and a few of her friends go missing, this case will get way too close to home...
1. Chapter 1

**So, here's my story. It's going to have a lot of OCs (okay, not **_**that **_**many) because it'd be kind of boring if it was only Alexis. POVs are going to switch back and forth between what's happening at the precinct and what's happening with Alexis and her friends. I need you guys to decide some things for me, such as where this story will take place. Now, of course it's going to take place in the woods that Slender takes place in, but I want to know if you want the whole story to take place there, or should I have the ending take place there and have the rest of the story take place in the Slenderman's Shadow spinoff locations, such as the mansion, hospice, and prison. It is entirely up to you.**

** Also, for the most part, I really have no attachments to my OC's (well, except for a couple) so you tell me who should die and when. I'm not sure if they will all die or not yet…**

** Here we go. Answer my questions in the reviews. Virtual cookies and cake to those who do.**

** Disclaimer: I don't own Slender or Castle.**

"C'mon, Rach, I wanna show you!"

The redheaded girl sighed and tried to ignore her companion.

"Please! It's awesome."

"I'm sure it is," Rachel said.

"It's the first time anyone's ever done it!"

"No, it's the first time _you've _done it. Hundreds of other people have already done it."

"Be that as it may, it's still cool. Please?"

Rachel huffed, then turned. "Fine."

The boy with her flashed a cocky grin, then moved his arms from his sides. Slowly, he placed one on his stomach and one on his head, and began to rub his stomach and pat his head. Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Wonderful," she said.

"I know, right?" the boy said, his cocky grin still plastered on his face.

"Pure brilliance, Jackson," she said.

Jackson kept smiling, then directed his attention to something over her shoulder.

"You're doppelganger's coming," he said. Rachel turned to see Alexis Castle advancing toward them.

"Hey, guys," Alexis said. Alexis and Rachel did look somewhat alike. They both had red hair and blue eyes. They definitely weren't doppelgangers, though. Rachel had more freckles-way more- and was a lot shorter. Alexis' hair was usually more well-kept than Rachel's, and she usually dressed better than the shorter girl. It wasn't that Rachel dressed bad, she just was usually in a sweatshirt and sweat pants. Okay, maybe that was dressing bad.

"Hey," Rachel and Jackson both replied.

"What're you up to?" Alexis asked.

"Jackson will explain it to you," Rachel said. "If you two will excuse me, I have to go."

"Aw, where are you going?" Jackson asked, sticking out his lower lip.

"I have to meet up with Dan in the band room," Rachel said. "We're going to-"

"Make out?" Jackson interrupted.

"No," Rachel said calmly, for she was used to this sort of thing with Jackson. "We're going to practice."

"Shoulda known," Jackson said.

"Yeah, you really should have," Rachel said. It was true. Rachel and Dan were constantly practicing. They had some sort of flute/viola duet coming up that they had to practice for. Though the word _had _was to be used lightly, because they were both pretty amazing at their instruments as it was. If they were to never practice, they would probably still be near, if not totally, perfect.

Rachel walked off, leaving Alexis and Jackson alone. Alexis tried to hide a yawn that was coming.

"You still haven't been sleeping well?" Jackson asked.

"No," Alexis admitted.

"You still don't want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay. But I'm here if you ever want to."

Alexis nodded, but doubted she'd ever tell him. The truth was the dreams she'd been having were too terrifying for her to want to relive. Alone, in the woods, with that _thing _following her…

* * *

Richard Castle stepped out of the elevator into the homicide level of the NYPD building, two coffees in his hands. He approached Kate Beckett's desk where she was sitting, obviously lost in thought. She held a pen up by her face and she was staring off into the distance.

"Hey, Kate," he said. She started and looked up at him.

"Hey," she said, taking the coffee he offered her.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her.

"Huh?" she asked, still relatively out of it.

"What's on your mind?"

"Oh." She blinked. "Oh, sorry. We got a call earlier this morning. Kimberly Wright went missing last night. She was a college student. That's the fifth one this week."

"Why are you worrying about this? It's a missing persons case, not homicide."

"Because the other four have all been found. Dead. Time is running out for Kimberly."

"So, what's our first move, then?"

They both froze as Beckett's phone rang. She stared at it for a second then picked it up.

"Beckett."

She closed her eyes for a moment as she listened, and when she opened them she looked disappointed.

"All right, Espo," she said, then hung up.

"Kimberly Wright's body has been found," she said. She grabbed her coat and headed out, Castle not far behind her.

They arrived at the scene of the crime in about fifteen minutes. It was a forest on the outskirts of town. There really aren't too many forests _in _town.

A blonde haired girl lay on the ground. She was rather tall, and her brown eyes stared unseeingly up at the sky.

"Well, Lanie," Beckett said. "What do we have?"

"Well, as you probably already know," Lanie began, "our vic is Kimberly Wright. She went missing late last night, when she never returned to her college dorm. Her roommate, Olivia Pierce reported it."

"Time of death?"

"I'd say early this morning, anywhere between 3:00 to 5:00. I'll be able to narrow it down after I get her back to the lab."

"All right, how about COD?"

"Now, that's what's weird about this. There doesn't really seem to be any cause of death. There are no stab wounds or bullet holes, no bruises to suggest strangulation, nothing that would point towards blunt force trauma, no injection marks that I can see. After I get her back to the lab I may be able to determine something, but I don't know."

Kate raised her eyebrows. No COD?

"All right," Beckett said, standing up. "C'mon Castle, let's look around the crime scene."

Castle had his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Castle?" Beckett asked.

"I know this girl," Castle said. "She goes to Alexis' college."

"Really?" Beckett asked. Esposito rummaged around in a file.

"What about them?" he asked, taking out pictures of the other four victims. Castle observed them closely. Two boys and two girls.

"I've seen her before," Castle said, pointing to a Hispanic-American girl.

"Daniella Lopez," Esposito said. "Do you think Alexis would be able to help us find out more about them?"

"It's possible," Castle said.

"Call her," Beckett urged. "Get her in here."

Castle nodded and dialed for Alexis. She picked up on the second ring.

"Dad?" she said.

"Hey, Alexis," he said. "Look, I need you to drop by the precinct."

"Is this about the disappearances?"

"You know about them?"

"Of course. Five people disappeared from my college, dad, that's going to be pretty hard not to hear about."

"Right. So I need you to drop by the precinct so we can talk to you about the victims."

"Okay." Alexis hung up.

Castle put his phone in his pocket.

"She'll be coming by," he told Beckett.

"We better get back then," Beckett said. "You guys got this?" She nodded towards Esposito and Ryan.

"Yeah," they both said, and Castle and Beckett were off.

The discussion with Alexis wasn't very helpful. She didn't know much about the victims, but she did have a few classes with Daniella and Kimberly. She gave a few names of people who would have more information, but other than that, they didn't learn much.

Their conversation did unsettle Castle a bit, though. When he saw Alexis, he immediately knew she hadn't been sleeping. He wanted to ask her about it, but he didn't want to do it in front of Beckett, and she was gone too fast for him to approach her afterward. She was also rather jumpy, she seemed constantly on edge. Even around her own father, the one person she could trust most in the world. Something wasn't right.

He'd let it slip to Beckett, but she'd just assured him that she was probably worried about an exam or an assignment. It was probably nothing to worry about. But Castle couldn't help it. Something was up.

* * *

"You still haven't told him, have you?"

Alexis sat in Rachel Long and Grace Tyler's dorm room. She sat on Grace's bed while the other girls sat on Rachel's.

"No," Alexis replied to the other redhead's question. "How can I? He'll blow it way out of proportion."

"Maybe it deserves to be blown out of proportion," Grace suggested, playing with a strand of brown hair. "It's been two weeks. And there have been five disappearances."

"They're just dreams," Alexis said.

"They aren't "just dreams"," Rachel said. "You've said so yourself."

"Yeah I think your exact words were 'nightmares of the worst kind that seem so real, I can't always distinguish between the dream and reality'," Grace reminded her.

Alexis looked at the ground. "I'm so scared…"

**Well, there you have it. So, review, please!**


	2. Chapter 2

** Here's chapter two. Oh, and sighttoseewasme, thanks for reviewing!**

** Disclaimer: I don't own Slendy or Castle.**

_She was running. Running through a forest that she had never been in before. She didn't know where she was going or what exactly she was running from. She just knew she had to run._

_ Everything looked the same. There were no distinguishing marks between the trees. She couldn't tell one from the next._

_ She stole a glance behind her. She immediately regretted it. It was behind her. _It. _She didn't know what it was, but it was evil. And it wasn't letting up. It was faster than her too. She wasn't going to win this. It was over…_

Alexis woke up screaming. Her roommate immediately sat up in bed, but then just shook her head. It wasn't the first time.

"You okay?" the girl asked.

"Yeah," Alexis said quietly. She wasn't, of course. Nowhere near okay. But Alexis didn't want to elaborate. She'd talk to Rachel and Grace in the morning. Or so she thought…

Kate Beckett stared at the murder board, trying to look for connections between the five victims. There didn't seem to be any past that they were all going to the same college. They didn't even seem to have any classes together. If this psychopath was just killing people from this college, that was a pretty big spectrum of possible victims.

Castle was going through crime scene pictures, looking for anything that could be evidence that they had missed. He didn't seem to be having any more luck than she was.

Castle's phone rang. He answered it quickly.

"Richard Castle," he said. He paused as the other person spoke.

"No, Alexis hasn't been home recently." Pause. "What?!" Pause. "Are you sure?" Pause. "Yes, of course." Pause. "Goodbye."

The phone dropped from Castle's hand.

"What is it?" Beckett asked.

"Alexis wasn't there when her roommate woke up this morning."

"What?" Beckett asked.

"She wasn't there."

Castle looked like he might break down. "She wasn't the only one."

Beckett's phone rang then. They both stared at it for a moment, then Beckett picked it up hesitantly.

"Beckett," she said quietly.

"Beckett, it's Esposito."

"What do you have?" She almost didn't want to know.

"We looked into Kimberly's next-of-kin and guess what?"

"What?" Beckett asked, relieved Esposito hadn't called about another dead body.

"Kimberly's mom was just getting ready to leave the country."

"Get her in here. Oh, and Espo? I don't know if you've been told this or not, but last night another group of college students went missing last night. Alexis was one of them."

"I'll look into it. See ya."

He hung up. Beckett put the phone down and looked over at Castle, who was still sitting in shock.

"We'll find her," Beckett said, placing her hand on his. Castle nodded, but didn't look convinced.

Beckett herself wasn't even convinced. They were very quickly running out of time. Every other victim had been found dead within eight hours of when they were reported missing. This was not good at all.

**That one was short, but I didn't want to get into the running from Slendy part just yet. Review, and answer my questions. Well, question because you can't really answer the second one yet.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here is the next chapter.**

** Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

Alexis Castle. Rachel Long. Grace Tyler. Daniel Hemp. Logan Killian. Jackson Wright. Leah Hope. Angela Laurel. Mason Blake. Avery Rhodes.

These ten people had gone missing from their Columbia dorm room beds. Ten freshmen. Ten lives on the line.

Their faces on the murder board stared down at Beckett every time she walked past, almost taunting her. This came too close to home.

"Beckett," someone said. She turned and saw Ryan. "The parents of the missing persons are here."

She followed him in to the room where all of the parents were gathered. Castle was amongst them. She sat down at the head of the table and faced all of them.

"I would just like you all to know that we are doing all we can to get your children back," Beckett said. She pulled out of a file the pictures of the five murder victims and passed them around. "Have any of you seen any of these people before?"

The pictures were swapped between the parents. Some studied the pictures intently, some barely looked at them. Finally, a woman at the other side of the table spoke.

"This one," she said, pointing at the picture of a girl with short brown hair, "was one of Angela's best friends. Dawn, I think it was."

"Yes," Beckett said. "That's Dawn Winters. She was found dead second."

"Well, this is Kimberly," a man said. "Avery's girlfriend."

"They were in a relationship?" Beckett asked.

"Yes," the man, Avery's father, said.

"Was her last name Wright?" a woman inquired.

"As a matter of fact, it was," Mr. Rhodes said.

"My Angela talked about her occasionally," the woman, Mrs. Laurel, said. "They were in a science class together, I think, and became good friends."

"Does anyone recognize anyone else?" Beckett asked.

"That's Jonathon Stoker," another man said. "Jackson was good friends with him."

"Jonathon Stoker?" a woman asked. "That's one of Leah's ex-boyfriends."

"This is Daniella Lopez," said a man who sat by himself, much like Castle. "She was friends with Rachel. They were in band together.

"Grace talked about a girl named Daniella who was in band, as well," Mrs. Tyler said. "That's probably her."

"I know him," a man said. "Paul something or other. He's been in school with Mason since grade school, though they were never particularly close."

"Paul Lange," Beckett said.

"That's it," Mr. Blake said.

"Wait, Paul Lange?" another man asked. "Dan called home once with a story about him. Said he'd beaten up a girl pretty badly."

"Do you know what this girl's name was?" Beckett asked.

"No, sorry," Mr. Hemp said. He asked his wife, who also said no.

"I might," a woman said. "Logan told me the same story. Come to think of it, it was Dawn Winters."

Beckett took note of that. She then moved on to her next question for the group.

"Do any of you know of anyone who would want to harm your children?" she questioned.

Most of the parents shook their heads.

"You can't make it through school without acquiring a few enemies," Mrs. Hemp said, "but I can think of no one who would want to cause _this _much harm."

A few of the parents agreed, though most stayed silent.

"Beckett?" Ryan peeked his head into the room.

"Excuse me," Beckett said, the rose and walked out of the room. Standing next to Ryan was a woman of medium stature, with long dark hair, bangs, and grey eyes.

"Beckett," Ryan said, "this is Detective Rider, specializing in kidnapping."  
"If you don't mind," she said, "I'd like to have a word with the parents."

"Of course," Beckett said, and gestured for her to enter the room the parents occupied. She did.

"How is Castle?" Ryan asked.

"Not well," Beckett said simply. "How would you feel?"

Ryan nodded, not having to say anything. They both couldn't imagine what Castle was going through, but they could try. It was _not _a good feeling.

* * *

Alexis' head was pounding as she sat up. She looked around at her surroundings, not sure where she was. She could tell she wasn't in her dorm room, though.

The floor was hard and cold beneath her. She could feel a wall at her back, but other than that, she was clueless about her surroundings, because it was completely dark. When her eyes finally adjusted, she continued her observations.

It was still very dark, but now she could see another person next to her. A short brunette. Grace. Alexis shook her gently, whispering her name, but the girl did not stir. They had been drugged.

Alexis stood, and was suddenly aware that she and Grace were not alone. She could see seven other people around them, all of whom she recognized. All of them were people from the college.

She started walking and realized she was in a corridor. It was very cramped and very cold and, as said before, very dark. She kept walking, hoping she would see something to shed some light on where she was, both literally and figuratively. She froze when she heard someone else's footfalls.

Her brain told her to run back to the others, but her body was listening. She stayed rooted to the spot. She listened intently. The footsteps were even, and they didn't seem to be in any hurry. They walked at a leisurely pace. And they were coming straight towards her.

She knew she should go back, pretend she was still unconscious, but still, she did not move. Finally, the footsteps were right in front of her and a silhouette could be seen.

"Alexis?" the person asked. Alexis immediately recognized the voice as that of Rachel.

"Rachel?" she asked, just to be sure.

"Oh thank God, someone else is awake," Rachel said. "I've been about for about an hour. Or, at least, probably an hour. I'm not exactly sure."

"Where are we?" Alexis asked.

"As far as I can figure," Rachel said, "we're in jail."

**There you have it. Oh, and it's a little sad that I just noticed that I have a Daniel and a Daniella. Epic fail on my part. Anyway, the next chapter will probably focus more on Alexis and her situation, mostly because I suck at writing about precinct happenings.**

** Oh, and if you didn't already figure it out, I'm doing all the different locations, as that was what I was told to do (thanks, sighttoseewasme). And they won't be going in any particular order, except Slendy's forest is going to be last.**


	4. Chapter 4

** Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.**

"As far as I can figure, we're in jail."

Alexis blinked. "In jail. As in, we've been arrested?"

Rachel shook her head. "No. We're _in _prison, we're in _a _prison. I should've clarified."

"Okay, so we're in a prison."

"Yeah, and a really old one, at that."

"How can you tell?"

"Well, there are no prisoners, the floors are cracked and broken almost everywhere, there are hardly any mattresses on the beds, and the mattresses that are there are pretty disgusting, there are gigantic holes in the walls in between cells, and most of the cell bars are so corroded they are basically disintegrated."

"Okay," Alexis said slowly, "I guess it is pretty safe to say this place hasn't been used in years."

"Yep," Rachel said.

Behind Alexis, someone groaned. Rachel craned her neck around Alexis, and Alexis turned. One of their friends was slowly getting to their feet. Alexis could tell, even in the darkness, that it was Dan.

He stood and turned his head, taking in his surroundings. Finally, he looked back at the two girls.

"This may or may not be a vastly stupid question, but do either of you have any idea where we are?" he asked, his voice low and hoarse.

"We are in prison," Rachel said, then corrected herself. "We are in _a _prison."

"I see" was all Dan said.

"You didn't happen to see anyone else when you went on your walk, did you?" Alexis asked Rachel.

"No," Rachel replied.

"Did you hear anyone talking?" Alexis asked.

"No," Rachel repeated.

Alexis sighed.

"Well, there must be someone around," she said. "Otherwise we wouldn't be here. Right?"

She glanced at the other two, but they stayed silent. No one could say anything for certain.

"Well, what do we do now?" Rachel asked after a moment.

"We stay here," Alexis said, "and wait for the others to wake up. It can't be long now."

"I suppose you're right," Rachel said.

The three of them walked back to where the others lay, and sat down on a bench that was bolted to the wall. They sat in silence for a moment, then Rachel spoke.

"Dan, what's that, on the other side of you?" she asked, pointing to a small, dark square that sat on the bench. Dan picked it up.

"It looks like…an old photograph," he said.

"What does it have on it?" Alexis asked.

"I can't tell," he said. "It's too dark in here, and this photo doesn't look very well developed. We might be able to tell what it is in better lighting, but I can't be sure."

Alexis nodded. Someone on the ground shifted, and then eventually sat. Their breathing was heavy. Their back was to the three of them, so it took Alexis a few moments to figure out who it was. It was Grace.

She sat and shuddered in the darkness, then finally turned around to face the other three. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw them.

"Oh, holy crap!" she said, putting her face in her hands. "It's just you guys."

Around her, almost everyone began to stir. The dark corridor was filled with groans as everyone sat up slowly. Finally, everyone except for Jackson was sitting up.

"Has someone been banging on my head with a hammer?" Leah asked, rubbing her temples.

"That's a very good question," Jonathon said, clutching his own head.

"You were drugged," Alexis said. "We all were."

"So, how long do you think we're going to have killer migraines if we've been drugged?" Angela asked.

"I don't know," Alexis admitted. Her own head was still pounding fiercely.

"It might be a while," Rachel said. "I've been up for an hour and mine's only just beginning to lessen."

"Great," Mason said sarcastically.

"Where are we?" Avery asked.

"We are in a prison," Rachel said for the third time, careful to emphasize the "a" in the sentence.

"So we are not imprisoned, but in a prison?" Leah asked.

"Correct," Rachel said.

"Wonderful," Mason said, his voice dripping with sarcasm for the second time. He opened up his mouth to say something else, but at that second he was interrupted by a loud, hysterical shout. Everyone looked around in confusion and, there's no point in denying it, fear for a moment, then noticed that Jackson was up. He sat stick straight and was twisting his head back and forth in horror.

"Jackson-" Leah said calmly, but was cut off by Jackson screaming again.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" he wailed.

"Jackson," Leah said once more.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!" he screamed. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?! I SWEAR TO GOD, I'LL-"

"Jackson!" Leah snapped, then slapped him across the face. "Shut _up!_"

Jackson blinked, then seemed to regain his composure.

"Whoa," he said. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, _whoa. _Sorry, guys."

"I hope no one heard that," Angela said.

"How could they not have?" Mason asked. "We are so screwed. Nice going, Jackson."

"Hey, I'm really sorry," Jackson said sincerely.

"It doesn't matter now," Mason said coldly. "This is all your fault. We are so dead."

"Not necessarily," Rachel said.

"Really?" Mason snapped. "How are we not?"

"If our captors wanted us dead, don't you think they would've killed us by now? In fact, we seem uninjured, so our captors may not be looking to harm us," Rachel explained. Mason glared at her.

"Rachel's right," Alexis said. "Besides, listen. It doesn't sound like anyone's coming."

Everyone was silent and listened. Alexis was right. There were no footfalls, no voices, nothing except for the sounds of each other's breathing. Nothing to indicate anyone was seeking them out.

"See?" Alexis said.

Mason huffed indignantly, but said nothing.

"So, what should we do?" Avery asked eventually.

"You said you didn't see anyone out there?" Alexis asked Rachel, who nodded her head in affirmation.

"Then why don't we take a little walk?" Alexis said.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Angela asked nervously.

"It is if we want to get out of here," Alexis said. "It's not like we're enclosed. If they didn't want us to roam around, they would've made sure we couldn't."

Everyone knew it was true. Finally, Alexis stood.

"Shall we?"

**There you have it. Oh, and by the way, I started writing this story on my computer before I even knew about the two most recent Castle episodes. I freaked a little bit when I saw the teaser trailer for the first part. So, sorry for any similarities, but, I mean, this has Slendy. It can't be that similar.**


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